Sigourney Weaver: What I've Learned

Actress, 60.

I changed my name when I was about twelve because I didn't like being called Sue or Susie. I felt I needed a longer name because I was so tall. So what happened? Now everyone calls me Sig or Siggy.

My father always used to carry his bathing suit in his briefcase. If there was nothing else in it, there was a bathing suit.

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That whole generation that's gone now, that lived through the two world wars, is a great example to all of us. They knew how to live. If something bad happened, they didn't sit at home, eat Häagen-Dazs, and watch a movie. They got dressed up, went out, caroused, and danced their feet off.

I was awfully good as the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. I think that was in third grade. I realize now that I played it as a screaming homosexual, but I certainly didn't know it at the time.

Have I ever doubted myself? Have I ever not?

I feel self-doubt whether I'm doing something hard or easy.

Being tall has a major impact in general. It takes some courage to be as big as you are — to live up to it and not be intimidated by the graceful tiny people.

That's true. I did live in a tree house dressed like an elf. You have to understand: Stanford in the early seventies was a very freewheeling place. Everyone was doing something different. I had friends in geodesic domes and trailers. Maybe we were the only people living in a tree house. But, you know, you get sick of dorm life after a while. I was living in the dorm with a group of girls who were incredibly conservative. I just had to get out. So I jumped out my window and never went back.

You get dressed like an elf and you know you're going to have a good day.

Comedy is the most important thing in the world except for justice.

I had such great teachers in high school who made me feel like I could do anything. Then to go to Yale, where these drama teachers made me feel like shit — if I have any advice for young people, it would be, "Don't listen to teachers who say, 'You're really not good enough.' " Just teach me. Don't tell me if you think I'm good enough or not. I didn't ask you. Teachers who do that should be fired.

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It's not until you fight for something that you become who you are.

Art is self-expression, but it's for all of us. It helps us understand who we are as a species.

The gorillas know what's important. Family, play, nature, just eating enough, not taking someone else's food. They live so simply. They're in the moment. When people say, "We're not descendants of apes," I think, We should be so lucky to be more like them. They're so far ahead of us on the evolutionary scale.

When you're young, there's so much now that you can't take it in. It's pouring over you like a waterfall. When you're older, it's less intense, but you're able to reach out and drink it. I love being older.

I really liked Jim. But he was seven years younger than I was, so I was very surprised when he wanted to marry me so much. I had to lecture him: "I am older than you. I will be ahead of you for every huge milestone in life. I'm going to lose my eyesight earlier. I'm going to fall apart earlier. I'm going to be the pioneer in this couple. So don't ever give me any shit about being older than you." When I finished, Jim was quiet. I probably scared him. That would've been the point for him to say, "You know what, I'm not ready for this." But he didn't say that, and we've been married for twenty-five years.

Every job sort of teaches you how to do it.

If I wasn't in Alien, I would've been too scared to watch it.

Jim Cameron said, "Science fiction is the exploration of what it is to be human."

When Avatar comes out, it may be like the day we went from black and white to color.

I volunteered to serve food to the workers at Ground Zero after 9/11. There were dogs trained to find living people. The people who worked with the dogs became worried because the day after day of not finding anyone was beginning to depress the animals. So the people took turns hiding in the rubble so that every now and then a dog could find one of them to be able to carry on.

I go on these panels and hear people crying because the public can watch movies on an iPod. Hey, who's to say that taking your iPod into the forest and watching a little bit of Lawrence of Arabia is not a fabulous experience?

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